OCCASIONAL -THOUGHTS, IN VERSE. - PREFACE. THE following is a selection from a variety of articles, with which the author has amused his leisure moments, snatched from the last fifteen years of severe physical and intellectual labor. They were written substantially at the times indicated, and all of them, except a few at the close of the volume, have been kept more than the nine years. Some have been already publislied in periodicals, but the author is not conscious of having bored the Editorial corps very often with his trifles. Whatever opinion may be formed of their merits, he can truly sap, that their com- position has cheered many a weary hour of his life. Shoufd their perusal produce the same effect on the mind of a single reader, the author will think their publication not altogether in vain. CONTENTS. Page. A Dawn in Winter, - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 85 A Rhapsody, ----------------------------------lOO A Summer Day in the Woods, - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 101 A Site for a Seminary, -- - -- - - -- -- -- -- ---- ---- ---- -70 A Peep through the Backa-oods, - -- --- - ---- -67 Athens, Ohio, ----------------------------------32 Evening Stanzas, --- --- -- -- -- --- - --- - - 11 Life, ----------------------------------------- Lines written in an Album 14 Marietta, ---------------------------------------16 My Pocket Bible, - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 53. On the Death of Mrs. Frances Price, ------- ---- -- - -95 Schoolhouse Stanz -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - -- - - - - - - - 38 Stanzas, -------------------------.--------------22 Stanzas, ---------------------------------------3 Page.Stanzas, ----------------------------------------8 Sunshine, -------------------------------------- Teachers Melody, - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -46 The Consumptive, - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -59 The Explosion, - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 55 The Hills, ----------------------------------- The Invit.ation, - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 8 1 The Old Town Clock, - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - -- - - -- - - -97 The Rich, ---, ---------------------------------4 - - -50 The Schoolmaster, - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -, The West, - - - - - - - -- - - -- -. - - - - - -- - - -- - - -- -- -- - - - - 88 To a Locust Tree, - - - -- - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -64 To the Ohio River, ----------------------- 17 To the Woods, ---------------------------------24 a glorious Slry along thy dizzy height Horn sparkling planets do delight to rove, And wink at feeble mortals, when the night Invites them out to wonder and to love. There solemn grandeur walks serene above, And calls each floating world of light its own And there benevolence, celestial dove, Is hovering oer the waters, where alone The Almighty maker builds his everlasting throae. Window of heaven through which the royal sun Shines on the earth, that in his radiance glows From his fitir flont what streams of glory run, And fi-om his eye what lightning fire he throws Then kindles life, and into beauty grows. How beauteous then thine own transparent blue So mild and modest not the violet knows More modesty than thou, wheneer thy hue Is calm and cloudless bright---andhow majestic, too. And thou art heavens laboratory, where The elements are compounded, and the dread Voice of the thunder hurries from their lair The savage tempests, quickening een the dead The battle clouds in quick array are spread, While roa.rs the trumpet of the storm, and flee The arrowy lightnings on from bed to bed Of mists contending like a mighty sea The cloud-shot dashing down from heavens artillery...